My wife and I have been playing Jambo in the evenings lately and it is quite satisfying. We've had if for about a year and played it several times. Recently we got Jambo Expansion and Jambo Expansion 2 and have been tweaking the card mix. I think we may have hit on one I really like.

There's something about the basic premise of drawing and playing cards that really works well for a two player game. Usually the options at any given time are limited enough to keep the game moving along, but there can also be tremendous variety as you go through the deck. Jambo makes the most of this variety.

I find the degree of randomness in Jambo makes it very good for a game between my wife and myself. Sometimes games that are more skill-based leave one or the other of us feeling hopeless before the game is half over. Normally, Jambo will see at least one strong swing in relative positioning during a game.

These are some of the things that are making Jambo a hit at our house. What is your favorite 2-player game, and why?

A Few Acres of snow. We're starting to try Out4Blood's variant mixes as well. This one has great sticking power for me and the wife.

A Few Acres of Snow is currently my favorite 2-player game, but I haven't played it with my wife yet. I love Wallace's melding of the deck-building mechanic with meaningful board play. I expect other designers will mimic it to tackle other historical subjects.

I would say our favorite 2-player game is Settlers of Catan the Card Game. (aka The Rivals for Catan). It's better than standard Settlers, and the expansions add variety.

For a quicker playing 2-player, we'll play Kahuna. A great abstract strategy game.

Kahuna can be great, but it can easily get into a lopsided state, where comebacks are virtually impossible. If I got more back-and-forth play in this it might be my favorite game.

Bill Eldard wrote:

I love Wallace's melding of the of the

I hope you'll finish this sentence / paragraph. I've played a few games of AFAoS on Yucata.de but that's about all my experience with the game. It may be an easier game to appreciate in person. The computer implementation somehow made the deckbuilding aspect difficult to see.

Kahuna can be great, but it can easily get into a lopsided state, where comebacks are virtually impossible. If I got more back-and-forth play in this it might be my favorite game.

Bill Eldard wrote:

I love Wallace's melding of the of the

I hope you'll finish this sentence / paragraph. I've played a few games of AFAoS on Yucata.de but that's about all my experience with the game. It may be an easier game to appreciate in person. The computer implementation somehow made the deckbuilding aspect difficult to see.

You might try 1955: The War of Espionage. It is one of my favorite games (so much so that when I decided to finally enter publishing, it was the first game I licensed).The game is a 2-player card / board game that uses hand management, card combos, maneuvering your spy for extra effect and out thinking your opponent to take control of three of six countries.

BattleCON has far and away the best hand management system I've seen that doesn't involve luck (the only game that's close is Mage Wars). The attack pair and cool down elements are brilliant, and create meaningful decisions about which cards to use now, and which to save for the next 2 beats. You try to outguess your opponent, but there is enough to consider in those decisions that the game feels more cerebral than other similar games. Coming out ahead in a beat feels more like out thinking your opponent than outguessing them. There is enormous variety between characters, better than any other similar game I've played.

Puzzle Strike solved all of my problem with Dominion. The game is more interactive, the victory conditions are more satisfying, and there is more variety between games. There are 20 different characters, and they play fairly differently. PS has enormous depth and numerous opportunities to gain advantages through skillful play. There is more room for tactical play, and the game is both more satisfying and more fun.

My wife's favourite game is Carscassone the Castle. You can't really go wrong with the Carcassonne series. The castle is simple to pick up and thought provoking. Small Box games produce some nice 2 player games - I really enjoy both Omen: A Reign of War and Hemloch but do find them somewhat similar for some reason. There is tactics in both games. I haven't tried Tooth & Nail: Factions but I'm sure it'll be good.I also enjoyed BattleCON: War of Indines but our first game took 2 hours! (and I haven't played since).I have only played The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game solo and love it (not that I have played in a while). It would definitely be better with two but to get through some scenarios I think you have to deck build - again something I haven't tried. I also have Blood Bowl: Team Manager – The Card Game and Warhammer: Invasion but haven't tried either - I have become a collector more than a gamer in my old age ...Blue Moon was excellent - haven't played in years - maybe because my wife beat me in every game! (I'm supposed to be the tactician here - c'mon!). Lost Cities is highly recomended - probably my favourite two player card game but again haven't played in a while.I have a few more two player games - but all unplayed.As for favourite - The Castle for simplicity yet enjoybility (new word?) closely followed by Hemloch and Omen. I love the Lord of the Rings Card Game but it may be a bit much for my other half

These are some of the things that are making Jambo a hit at our house. What is your favorite 2-player game, and why?

My wife and I enjoy 2P Carcassonne, with a bunch of the better expansions.

As you mention card games, we also like:

- San Juan, which I think is superb - it's quick to play, easy to learn and has rrom for multiple strategies to victory.

- The Rivals for Catan - the 2P cardgamer version of Settlers. The base game is good - it's a little more involved than San Juan, and requires more space to play, but it's a great card treatment of the Catan experience.

Believe it or not, after playing hundreds of modern games, my favorite 2 player game is still Stratego, even after the nostalgia factor wore off on my other childhood favorites.

I figured out what was special about it somewhat recently. It's the only game I've ever played that has both no randomness after the game begins and hidden, non-trackable information. This means that the game is almost entirely about skillful play (and I would argue situations where you "get lucky" usually mean poor placement by your opponent), but doesn't become rote or follow a "script" like many perfect information games, and you're still able to bluff.

I've actually been trying to find a multiplayer game with the same qualities, and so far have come up short, so I think I may have to design it myself.

for No Randomness after the game begins and hidden information, try Navegador.

I don't think that actually fits. The hidden information he talks about is information that one player knows and the other doesn't. And while all of the randomness in Navegador is in the setup it really is like randomness through the game because you don't know the order of the good stacks until you reveal them. It's functionally equivalent to not setting the stacks during setup and drawing them randomly from a bag during play.

However it's a great game so I can't argue with recommending it!

Edit: I'm having a hard time thinking of games that DO fit that criteria. Dungeon Twister is close. I wouldn't exactly call the simultaneous combat card selection 'hidden information' but it has the bluffing/guessing feel that he likes in Stratego.

for No Randomness after the game begins and hidden information, try Navegador.

I don't think that actually fits. The hidden information he talks about is information that one player knows and the other doesn't. And while all of the randomness in Navegador is in the setup it really is like randomness through the game because you don't know the order of the good stacks until you reveal them. It's functionally equivalent to not setting the stacks during setup and drawing them randomly from a bag during play.

Exactly.

I appreciate the suggestion, though! (And sorry for derailing the thread!)

But now that I understand the Stratego's poster's intent better, it may be that Mr. Jack has what he wants. Jack has one piece of information that the Dective wants, namely who is Jack. There is very little randomness in the game. In every 2 rounds all 8 potential suspects will be moved -- 4 by Jack and 4 by the Inspector. Every odd round you select 4 suspects to be played that round (leaving the other 4 to be played next round). Whoever picks Sherlock Holmes will get to see one random innocent card. That's all the randomness there is.

It is a difficult game to play well. Indeed, a great many people never get to play it as anything other than Mastermind -- which occurs to me is a game that has hidden information and no luck -- and they find that it is easy for the Inspector to win. But with practice, your play as Jack improves, until you can get to the point that in something approaching half of your games the Inspector is forced to guess in the last round.

Which makes it an information leakage game .... ah, I am going to guess Lestrade rather than Gull because in round 2 if I had played X, then Gull would have been on the short side of a 5-3 split of light and dark, and since you didn't prevent that I'll conclude it was because you weren't trying especially hard to keep Gull in the majority. Of course, the people I play with are known to do exactly that to mislead me. And it is amusing to play with newbies. You have this amazing model going on in your head, and the reason they made an inferior move was not because a different char was Jack, or because they were trying to mislead you, but because they didn't see the better moves they could have made.

I've scanned the playing board, and made one that fits in a metal pencil box. I have replaced the cards with 8 tokens, appropriately coloured, and the shuffling with 'draw from a sack'. The game pieces have been shrunk to coloured stickers on magnets. Voila! A pocket game that is more fun than Mr. Jack Pocket. And since I regularly have to travel by plane and train for many hours -- not to mention waiting around in stations and airports -- We now have something fun to do while we wait. It is also small enough to take in a kayak, which is a concern of mine, since I go on long paddling tours in the summer -- assuming we have one, this year we didn't get one, alas.

Roma is a nice quick game with a screw you style interaction. Other than mini games, this is our most played games.

Looking over my list of favorites, I realize that many of my favorite two player games are also multi-player games. I strongly recommend Wasabi! as a two player. It's a great game too. It's a strong two player game that uses part of the board instead of the whole. Lots of interaction and planning. Each turn can require a invited plan.

“Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him.” Perelandra, C.S. Lewis

"He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.” Perelandra, C.S. Lewis

The line between wargames and strategy games can be pretty thin. Twilight Struggle is rated at the top of both lists. The trade off of operations points versus events means lots of decision points and tension. Same for Labyrinth: The War on Terror, 2001 - ?, also listed as a wargame and strategy game. Of course, you could make the arguement that most wargames are strategy games.